You have a voice in your head?

[StillStunned]

When I'm writing, I often imagine myself reading it aloud to my wife.

 

[stickygirl]

I hear myself when I think, read, write, ect. When I first found out some people don't have constant internal dialog it blew my mind because I almost never have silence in my mind.

Every thought that pops up in my head is in my own voice, but it's hard to explain. It doesn't 'sound' like my voice, it just is my voice. It's not loud or quiet, it's just always there. It's doesn't get tired, it doesn't take breaks.

Like if I just look at a cloud, I can get sucked into a ten minute conversation with myself, "Oh dang, that's a dark cloud... it must have lots of water in it. I mean, shit... that's a whole ass lake in the sky. Imagine if it just collapsed all at once. I bet it would kill everyone under. I mean, we already know a water fall can fuck us up, and we know people die from landing on water. So it would just be like landing head first on a lake of water from thousands of feet up, but upside down."

And another weird thing is when I'm talking to myself in my head, I can tell when my thoughts are 'on my side' because when I start talking to myself I'll be addressing Me, I, Us, as You instead, like "Yeah, no shit dumbass. Of course that didn't work out. You should've known better. Every time you try to bake something you just throw fifty dollars in the trash. You should just go buy some fucking donuts and give up."
It's like a narrator is following me around narrating my entire awake life. The only time I don't have internal dialogs is when I dream. And the very few times I did have internal dialog in a dream, I immediately noticed something strange things like mirrors not reflecting or all the books are blank, and then I realize I'm dreaming a wake up. Then blammo, my narrator chimes in like, "Holy shit, that was weird."

Fascinating. Thanks for sharing

 

[lovecraft68]

I hear my story ideas in my voice as I think of them. But when it comes to writing the story is being told to me as I type. The thing that makes this strange is it's a woman's voice, kind of smoky and 'speaks' more slowly than I do.

I've heard this voice before I began to write at different points in my life, usually not good ones. But 'Julie", I'll spare people the story behind that name, seems to enjoy the writing process so I feel I truly have a muse.

FWIW I went through some tests in my teens because a therapist felt I might be paranoid schizophrenic after I mentioned the voice, that and my general inconsistent and at times strange behavior.

Tests came back negative.

Fooled them big time. Heh...

 

[stickygirl]

I hear my story ideas in my voice as I think of them. But when it comes to writing the story is being told to me as I type. The thing that makes this strange is it's a woman's voice, kind of smoky and 'speaks' more slowly than I do.

I've heard this voice before I began to write at different points in my life, usually not good ones. But 'Julie", I'll spare people the story behind that name, seems to enjoy the writing process so I feel I truly have a muse.

FWIW I went through some tests in my teens because a therapist felt I might be paranoid schizophrenic after I mentioned the voice, that and my general inconsistent and at times strange behavior.

Tests came back negative.

Fooled them big time. Heh...

Wait - you’re not a woman?!

 

[lovecraft68]

Wait - you’re not a woman?!

Nah, I just have bitchy down to an art form.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Only if I'm reading lyrical poetry or lyrics. Otherwise, it's more like a movie playing in my head, or like feeling the meaning of the words as I read or write them.

 

[XerXesXu]

Inner voice/narrative/dialogue is another interesting facet of peoples' subjective reflection on their own cognitive processes. One of the normal developmental steps for a human is to develop a theory of mind, that is a theory that other humans also have minds, and they project into other peoples' minds their subjective analysis of their own cognitions. It's difficult to objectively investigate how human cognition works, but some have tried and interesting findings emerge.

This rather long but fascinating video reviews the findings of objective investigation:

I, subjectively, experience inner speech when I read and write, also when I listen to other people speaking - it appears always to be simultaneously translated into my own inner voice. I've checked, and that's not my own voice, my inner voice is like an idealised voice. Behind my inner voice there must also be a huge amount of non-symbolic thinking because my inner voice floats on top of the manipulation of vast quantities information embedded in my memory.

 

[dirk2024]

One of those wtf moments from a random Insta post that had me searching the web.

Some people have a voice in their head when they read but some people don't! This isn't a judgement - no one will be burnt at the stake, it's just strange how we each navigate the world. I do recall reading that centuries ago a monk was observed reading without his lips moving, to the consternation of others.
So describe what's going on in your head when you read, just for fun and science.

No voice. My issue is staying within the lines. I will be reading and, while my eyes continue to jump from word to word, I'll start thinking about other nonsense; bills, taxes, whatever. I have to catch myself, stop and go back to where my attention diverted.

 

[NuclearFairy]

No voice. My issue is staying within the lines. I will be reading and, while my eyes continue to jump from word to word, I'll start thinking about other nonsense; bills, taxes, whatever. I have to catch myself, stop and go back to where my attention diverted.

This too! It's why I don't read as much as I want to.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Sometimes, I guess.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

Slightly off topic, but one of my clients, a diagnosed schizophrenic, told me that he has made a major breakthrough in his therapy. He said, "I realized that just because the voices in my head tell me to do something, that doesn't mean I have to do it. I don't do what anyone else tells me, why should I listen to them?"

has he seen a specialist?

 

[MelissaBaby]

has he seen a specialist?

He has a therapist at the Community Health Agency, which is not optimal. Not that those people aren't good at what they do, but they are horrendously overworked.

 

[ronde]

I do "hear" a voice in my head when I read and write. I think that's because I learned to read using the "Phonics" system and because when I learned to read, both the teachers and my mother, who was also a teacher, thought moving your lips when you read was a sign of a student with poor reading skills. They thought the same thing about following the words with a fingertip. I don't subscribe to either of those stereotypes, but to some extent, some poor readers do tend to mouth the words and follow along with a fingertip.

If the work is well written and interesting, I can find myself visualizing the scene as well.

 

[Havanawang]

One of those wtf moments from a random Insta post that had me searching the web.

Some people have a voice in their head when they read but some people don't! This isn't a judgement - no one will be burnt at the stake, it's just strange how we each navigate the world. I do recall reading that centuries ago a monk was observed reading without his lips moving, to the consternation of others.
So describe what's going on in your head when you read, just for fun and science.

Images. Not very distinct. Never tried to describe. I am subject to the occasional auditory hallucination. First was maybe ten years ago while driving down a rural highway at about 50 mph with zero neighboring traffic, I heard the distinct, loud sound of a heavy glass breaking in the passenger side footwell. I carry no passengers. I carried no glasses that day. I did not run over a large glass in the roadway as I am a very observant and careful driver. I have encountered spectres from the past during my fleeting hours here in this ongoing heaven and hell...

 

[Voboy]

My lips always move when I read, and often I'll whisper the words. I always have.

It used to drive my wife crazy.

When I write, the words just flow like a river. I do "hear" them, but in my own voice. And my lips don't move.

 

[JGittes]

Trying to make sense of the damned voices in my head is why I write.

 

[MrPixel]

I don't hear voices when I read. I do, however, seem to have some manner of understanding of the sound of the voices of my characters as I write them. There was one instance I was grocery shopping and heard a conversation from the next aisle over, one of them, "OMG, that's Ellie!", one of "my" FMCs. Of course it wasn't and I didn't go to see what she looked like; I didn't need to, I had already seen Ellie's "doppelgänger" in a Costco about a year earlier.

Funny how the mind works.

 

[stickygirl]

I've been asking friends this question over the last couple of weeks. The replies are really interesting and equally friends are surprised to hear each others experience.

 

[Voboy]

I've been asking friends this question over the last couple of weeks. The replies are really interesting and equally friends are surprised to hear each others experience.

My coworkers and I were just discussing this last week, how we each organize our thoughts differently. Like, what we picture in our minds when we're searching for the connections between our thoughts.

I see an old-skool Windows file screen, like I've got a bunch of folders to choose from and some of them have subfolders. One of my work buddies said his thoughts were more like the Star Wars images of the planet Coruscant. Another buddy was speechless; she said she didn't really picture anything at all.

 

[stickygirl]

My coworkers and I were just discussing this last week, how we each organize our thoughts differently. Like, what we picture in our minds when we're searching for the connections between our thoughts.

I see an old-skool Windows file screen, like I've got a bunch of folders to choose from and some of them have subfolders. One of my work buddies said his thoughts were more like the Star Wars images of the planet Coruscant. Another buddy was speechless; she said she didn't really picture anything at all

Oh how thoughts are arranged/retrieved? That's a whole other discussion from voices, but interesting all the same.

Hmm, I wonder how neurotypical brains act differently to NDs in that respect?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I've been assured repeatedly that hearing voices in my head is fine as long as they aren't always threatening, and I don't feel compelled to listen to them. Which, since a psychotic episode as a student, has been the case. I get on quite well with some of them, who assure me they're just doing their jobs.

Now if only they'd do my job instead, I might get round to writing more...

 

[stickygirl]

I wouldn't describe the thoughts in my head as voices, but my head is never quiet. A classic question put to neurotypicals is "What are you thinking?" to which they might reply "Nothing" which totally baffles a ND who comments "How can you possibly be thinking nothing? That's not possible."

I've taken to having naps of ten or twenty minutes, but I've noticed the stillness gives my brain some space to think and often I'll find it writing the next scene for me with ideas I would have struggled to have written otherwise. I just need to convince my employers lying down is time well spent!!

 

[latent_heat]

Sure, I've got a few. I don't actually "hear" them, as in I don't perceive them as actual sounds from the outside world that my ears are capturing. But I am pretty sure the processing involves auditory regions of my brain. Just like I can "hear" music in my head, I have a whole cast of voices I can "hear" when I read, when I argue with myself, or when I daydream/fantasize. I definitely have some thoughts that are visual and couldn't be verbalized effectively, but many of my thoughts are in the form of monolog or dialog.

 

[alohadave]

A classic question put to neurotypicals is "What are you thinking?" to which they might reply "Nothing" which totally baffles a ND who comments "How can you possibly be thinking nothing? That's not possible.

Nothing worth sharing, or I'm thinking something that if I told you, we'd both wonder what the fuck is wrong with me.

 

[SmilingLez]

I wouldn't describe the thoughts in my head as voices, but my head is never quiet. A classic question put to neurotypicals is "What are you thinking?" to which they might reply "Nothing" which totally baffles a ND who comments "How can you possibly be thinking nothing? That's not possible."

I've taken to having naps of ten or twenty minutes, but I've noticed the stillness gives my brain some space to think and often I'll find it writing the next scene for me with ideas I would have struggled to have written otherwise. I just need to convince my employers lying down is time well spent!!

What I found interesting is that I can attach an accent or even a different gender to the "voice" in my head, however, when I talk out loud to myself especially when I am reading the prose that I wrote, the accent/gender is gone and I just sound like me.

I have always wondered what 'thinking about nothing' (when somebody says that) actually is